About Us

Connect is a bi-monthly publication supporting student participation in primary and secondary schools. It has been published since late 1979 - up to issue 200 in print, and from issue 201 on-line.

Connect supports educational change and development through assisting students and teachers to document and share practices in which students have substantial decision-making and implementations roles, around real and important issues. It includes stories from initiatives around Australia (and occasionally elsewhere), and develops and reviews resources.

Connectis now produced as a free on-line publication, available through this website. Notification of new issues is available by free subscription.

Connect Publications has also produced a series of books - a series of short case studies of Junior School Councils in primary schools (Democracy Starts Here), a compilation of articles about increasing the effectiveness of Student Councils (Student Councils and Beyond), the story of the development of Student Action Teams in a network of primary and secondary schools in Melbourne (Student Action Teams), a detailed account of the operation of a literacy program by and for students with learning differences in northern Victoria (Reaching High) and a comic book for teachers written by Grade 4, 5 and 6 students – about increasing student engagement with school (Switched On to Learning).

ABN: 98 174 663 341

Connect Archives

Current and back copies of Connect are available on-line for FREE through a partnership with the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). Following issue 200 (in 2013), Connect is now only available on-line - for FREE. Contact us to request a FREE on-line subscription.

Global Village is a weekly 2-hour radio program of music from around the world. It has been broadcast on Melbourne community station PBS 106.7 FM and digital since 1989 (and developed from the previous program: Mainly Acoustic). It features interviews plus music with a mainly traditional or acoustic basis - but I'm always interested in the unusual.

The Global Village program can be heard on PBS-FM 106.7 FM and digital in the wider Melbourne area (on Sundays 5-7 pm), or you can listen live through the PBS websiteand hear past programs via Audio Archive (follow the 'Audio Archive' link on the PBS website or access these via specific program playlists).

This Gig Guide provides an index to relevant music in the Melbourne area. It is updated regularly.

Education Consultancies

I work with various schools, clusters of schools and other groups around approaches, projects and programs - generally that involve some form of active student participation - such as Student Action Teams. This includes discussions with staff, organisation and facilitation of student forums, writing reports and documentation and development of resources. Contact me for further information.

Australian Youth Research Centre

I am a Senior Research Associate at the Youth Research Centre, in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education of The University of Melbourne. Further information about past and present work with the Centre may be found on their website.

Who We Are

Roger Holdsworthwas a secondary school teacher for many years, teaching in the areas of Physics and Mathematics. In the 1970s he was involved in several innovative educational programs: an early cross-age tutoring program (paying students to teach other students), a multilingual student-run community newspaper and radio program (Ascolta), an alternative school (Lynall Hall), an alternative Year 12 program (STC: Schools Year Twelve and Tertiary Entrance Certificate) and so on. As a consequence, he began publishing Connect to share these stories and to encourage others to document and share their own experiences.

He was subsequently a curriculum consultant (with the Participation and Equity Program: PEP), then worked in the community youth sector (with the Youth Affairs Council of Victoria: YACVic) and for the Poverty Campaign (with VCOSS) before joining the Australian Youth Research Centre (YRC) (at The University of Melbourne) in 1990. He was Manager there for many years, writing or assisting in the writing of many reports, as well as carrying out many research programs.

Roger 'retired' in 2004, but 'failed' at this, so continues to work as a consultant with various schools. He maintains a strong and passionate commitment to real roles of value for young people in schools.

As part of that, he works with the VicSRC- the umbrella body of Student Representative Councils - as part of its Supporters Group.